


A Very Long Night

by meridian_rose (meridianrose)



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-09 21:35:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8913154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridianrose/pseuds/meridian_rose
Summary: Duke has a mission; have Seth, the only other person who remembers Haven, take him back there. Only if Duke gets too far away Seth forgets him again. It's going to be a long journey filled with some long days and one very long night.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ratpaw](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratpaw/gifts).



> Set between "After Sandman" and "Wild Card"

  


Duke decided he needed to keep a close on Seth. Last time he'd got more than a hundred yards away to get snacks – Seth was a snack eating machine and Duke wondered why wasn't he three times the size instead of the lithe bodied young man he was – the idiot had forgotten all about Duke and Haven. Cue the same dance he'd gone through before to make Seth remember.

It was like "Groundhog Day", and Duke had only seen that movie once because some girlfriend whose name he could no longer remember had insisted on going to the movies when it came out. He'd been lukewarm on it at best and he personally had no desire to live the same moments over and over.

The third time Seth's eyes widened in amazement as he remembered the truth and began to see the videotape as something other than static had Duke thumping his head against the door of the van.

So when they stopped at a motel, Duke stayed close. When they went to the room, Duke was Seth's shadow. And when Seth went to the bathroom…

"Dude," Seth protested, embarrassed, when Duke insisted on leaving the door open and leaning on the door frame. "Do you have to watch me pee?"

Duke sighed and turned to face away, folding his arms. "I just don't want you forgetting me again. There's a very small window of space where you remember me and I have no desire to explain about Haven all over again."

Seth grumbled, flushed the toilet, washed his hands. Duke stole a glance over his shoulder, watching Seth touch up his hair with damp fingers. It was pretty nice hair, he had to admit.

"I get it. It's frustrating," Seth said, unzipping his jacket as he exited the bedroom. "But you're starting to freak me out."

"What choice do we have? I need your help and you want to solve the mystery."

Seth sat down on one of the narrow twin beds. "We could experiment," he said.

Duke blinked a few times. "Excuse me?"

"You know, with the distance. We could get a tape measure or something and you hold one end and Ill back away, one step at a time until I don't remember who you are and then, bam!" Seth clapped his hands together. "That's our, whaddyacall it? Like when you get a restraining order and there's a minimum distance."

Duke sighed. "Restraining orders keep you away from each other. We need the opposite."

"Right, right." Seth tapped his foot. He was bundle of energy, hyped on fast food and little sleep and the incredible story Duke had told him.

"But that's not a bad plan," Duke had to admit. It would be nice to establish a perimeter that meant he could shower in peace and Seth could pee unaccompanied. "We should test the limits."

A few minutes later, Duke and Seth stood in the grassy area behind the motel parking lot. Duke and Seth faced off like wild west gunslingers.

"It's like we're duelling," Seth said, clearly picking up on the theme too. He took a step back. "Draw!" He took another step.

"You turn your back when you're duelling," Duke corrected. "Then you turn and fire. Don't you dare," he added in case Seth took this as an instruction. He wanted to see Seth's face as the distance increased. "And slower!"

At his admonition, Seth took slower paces.

"Who am I?"

"Duke Crocker," Seth replied.

A few more paces.

"Seth?" Duke had become concerned by the slightly glazed look on Seth's face.

"Huh?" Seth glanced around him.

"Take a step forward," Duke said and Seth did so. "Seth?"

Seth blinked. "I'm okay. I remember you."

Duke let out a slow sigh of relief. "That's our limit then." It gave them plenty of breathing room, being several paces longer than the entire motel room. They didn't need to watch each other in the bathroom. Thank heaven for small mercies.

"Do you think if people get close enough to Haven they remember it?" Seth asked him.

Duke shrugged. This was as weird to him as it was to Seth and he didn't have any answers. "You hungry for some real food?"

Seth beamed.

-/-  
Duke watched Nathan die, and Audrey was screaming, and Haven was disintegrating around them. As Duke watched, the sky turned red and he stared at his palm as he too, began to crumble into nothingness…

"Duke!"

Duke woke with a start. Seth was shaking him, wide-eyed and tousle-haired.

"You were having a hell of a nightmare."

"Yeah," Duke said, and he hoped that covered it because it had been too vivid, felt too real, and he didn't want to talk about it. 

Seth perched on the edge of the bed. "You okay now?"

"Yeah. Thanks for waking me." Duke frowned. "And sorry I woke you."

"No problem." Seth stifled a yawn. He was wearing only black boxer shorts and a scruffy t-shirt depicting what Duke guessed from the style and the legend "It Came From Sector Eighteen" was the poster from a cult classic horror movie. "I'm going to make coffee. Want some?"

"Sure."

Duke sat up, rubbing at his eyes. He was grateful that Seth didn't expect him to go straight back to sleep. The way he felt now he didn't want to sleep ever again.

The drink he was handed was instant coffee from Seth's emergency supplies made with hot water from the faucet and it was awful. But it was also warm and drinking it gave Duke something to focus on, so he sipped at it while Seth, sitting on his own bed, rambled about some of the strange happenings he'd heard of that involved dreams.

Eventually even the irrepressible Seth began to run out of things to say and gave a yawn.

"Get some sleep," Duke said.

"I'm good."

"You're driving tomorrow. You need to sleep."

Seth sighed and lay down, staring at the ceiling. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. I'm good."

Duke turned out the lights. He still couldn't bear to sleep yet, though he heard Seth drift off, snoring softly, after a few minutes. The company was a comfort, though Duke wouldn't admit it if asked. He wondered how far Seth could or would come on this journey with him, how far he ought to allow him to. Haven was more dangerous than ever and Duke was loath to put Seth in harm's way.

He was just a kid. Smarter and braver than any of them had at first given him credit for. Resourceful and fun to be with, at least for a while. Cute, if Duke allowed himself to think about that. But still, not a Haven resident, not someone who was Troubled, someone who had their whole life in front of them. It wouldn't be right to drag Seth too deep into Duke's life and problems. Not until things were settled, one way or another.

Seth mumbled something in his sleep and Duke sighed. Tomorrow they'd head out again, together. How long it would be that way he didn't know, but for now he'd take the companionship with gratitude.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is a sideways reference to "Groundhog Day" (Rita: Why weren't you like this last night? You just fell asleep. Phil: It was the end of a very long day.)
> 
> 2015 Solstice gift for rat-paw.


End file.
